Stories

I was doing career counseling in a business office back in the 1980s and starting my practice as a psychotherapist at the same time.  The office had three salesmen and three consultants.  I was one of the consultants who did the client work from the contracts that the salesmen sold.  The support staff for the organization consisted of … Read more TIRE TRACKS

Annie Arrives On Friday, February 9, 1951 society bandleader and pianist Eddie Duchin died in New York City. My mother kept the newspaper clipping in her jewelry box for years.  I didn’t know why.  Years later I found it, turned it over and discovered the small obituary for Benjamin Silverman, my father.  The following Saturday, February 17, 1951 … Read more ANNIE TAKES CARE OF THE FAMILY

Goldie and Sam were a round couple.  Everything around them was round, round faces, round bodies, and big round arms and legs.  They lived in a house at the corner of our block, attached to their gas station.  I never saw Sam dressed up in anything but his oil-stained striped Mobilgas overalls, never without grease on his hands.  A … Read more GOLDIE, SAM, AND MY DREAM HORSE

More than thirty-five years ago I left school-teaching to enter a career as a mental health counselor.  I was sitting on my front steps brushing my Chow-Chow dog.  My home faced the back entrance of a residence for “troubled” girls. The girls lived and attended school within the building.   I knew nothing more about the place, but frequently … Read more Libby, My Star Client

The marriage was over.  The civil divorce was final.  Yet there was another knot to be untied.  Within the Jewish religious tradition there is another divorce, a Jewish divorce, a “Get.”  This document is necessary to enable both parties to be remarried within the religion at some future time.  Civil divorces are not recognized as legitimate in the more religious … Read more THE GET

Knock Knock Knock…Come in Fool Edmund Amidon, Ph.D. was a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. He was Chairman of a psychological graduate department, one of the first group education departments in the United States. Over the years, Edmund or “Ted” as we referred to him served as teacher, father, counselor, and most of al,l … Read more KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK…COME IN FOOL

Florence was 80 years old, when she decided to seek counseling to help her with her loneliness and her inability to stay asleep at night.  A year before she had moved to New Jersey to a retirement apartment building.  Although she realized she was old when stared into the mirror in her bathroom, she didn’t feel old.  What … Read more PHOTO FINISH

Sixth grade is an odd, uncomfortable, and sometimes funny time of childhood.  It’s the last year of elementary school, if there is a junior high school to switch to, or it is the last grade to be in one classroom all day long.  My elementary school went from kindergarten through eighth grade; I was still in grade … Read more A FIGHT FOR LOVE

In the Winter of 1963 I was 20 and a weekly “blind” dater.  I connected with girls through fix-ups, relatives, social parties, and through courageous chance meetings when shopping and on the street.  Although I was shy and self-conscious, I risked rejection with contacts by phone.  I never followed up if I sensed rejection.  At parties, I initiated with … Read more A NEW YORK BLIND DATE